Fort starts season with 'Dames'

Group brings back summer stock theater to historic setting

Group brings back summer stock theater to historic setting

July 05, 2007

By Jeff Bahr American News Writer What makes the Northern Fort Playhouse a real summer stock experience is that the cast and crew have little time to mount the shows. The time from the first rehearsal to opening night is a little more than two weeks, according to Daniel Yurgaitis, the artistic director of the Northern Fort Playhouse. Opening night for the young actors is this weekend. The Northern Fort Playhouse begins its second season with “Dames at Sea” Friday night and “How the Other Half Loves” Saturday. The plays are presented indoors at Fort Sisseton State Historic Park. Putting on a show in two weeks, everyone agrees, is a lot of work. Actor Brian Warzeha admits that the actors got their scripts in April. “But, of course, none of us looked at them until two weeks ago,” he said, smiling. The playhouse is a collaboration between the Northern State University theater program and the Fort Sisseton Commission. After starting out at the Johnson Fine Arts Center, the actors moved rehearsals to Fort Sisseton on Sunday. Most of them will spend about 13 nights at the fort over the next few weeks. After Friday and Saturday, the shows will be presented three more weekends. Each play will have four performances. The Northern Fort Playhouse began last summer with “Sylvia” and “Plaza Suite.” “Dames at Sea” will be the theater's first musical. “Sylvia” had one song in it last year. Three musicians provide the accompaniment for “Dames at Sea.” Four actors return from the fort's first season. They are Rory Behrens, Angela Nguyen, Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha and Leah Arnold. Last summer, when she was still a student at Aberdeen Central, Arnold worked behind the scenes. Headed for Northern this fall, she appears onstage this summer in both Northern Fort plays. Yurgaitis directs and choreographs “Dames at Sea.” Many of the actors are familiar to local audiences from their work at NSU and Aberdeen Community Theatre. These two shows, Yurgaitis said, give people a chance to see those actors in a different setting, and a different style of entertainment. In repertory theater, a different show is presented each night. The actors, by the way, are paid. This is their summer job. The playhouse began modestly last year, Yurgaitis said. But, he said, “We're in this for the long haul.” A project like the Northern Fort Playhouse takes “five years to get truly established,” he said. But he hopes a trip to the fort becomes a regular part of people's summer calendars, in the same way that people go to the Brown County Fair each August. Yurgaitis, an admirer of the fort, would like to see people combine a night of theater with a picnic. Research shows that people who patronize historic sites are also those who support the arts, he said. Having theater at the fort helps to make the area an attractive place to visit, Yurgaitis said. Roy Lake is less than 10 minutes away, he noted. The three Saturday night performances after this weekend will be dinner theater shows. On at least two of those nights, musical entertainment will be provided at 7 p.m. Among those performing will be the Preservations and NSU professor Robert Vodnoy. “Dames at Sea” is an affectionate spoof of 1930s musicals and “How the Other Half Loves,” a comedy by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, is a “wonderfully constructed farce” that is very silly and very fun, according to Yurgaitis. In addition to musical director Darcy Brandenburg, the orchestra for “Dames at Sea” consists of percussionist Keiko Muto and pianist Heather Woehlhaff. Working on both shows are lighting designer Larry Wild of NSU, scenic designer Tom Benson of Tucson, Ariz., and costumer Bonny Athy, a Northern student from St. Charles, Iowa. Here is a look at the others involved: Doug Finlayson Finlayson is the guest director of “How the Other Half Loves.” He spent six weeks at NSU in spring 2006 directing the university's production of “As You Like It.” So he already knows Aberdeen. “I went to the Y and signed up this morning. Love your Y,” Finlayson said June 25, freshly arrived back in town. Finlayson is going into his ninth year at Webster University in St. Louis, where he is head of the directing department. Finlayson got to know Yurgaitis at the University of Arizona, where they both taught in the mid-1990s. Rory K. Behrens The Northern Fort productions might be the last time that local audiences see Behrens perform. Behrens, who graduated from Northern in May, is moving to the Twin Cities. He has landed a role in the chorus of two Minnesota Opera productions, “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Italian Girl in Algiers.” Behrens, 24, auditioned for the opera company in May. At Fort Sisseton, he plays Bob Phillips in “How the Other Half Loves” and Dick in “Dames at Sea.” Darcy Brandenburg The NSU student from Edgeley, N.D., is musical director of “Dames at Sea” and plays Frank Foster in “How the Other Half Loves.” Until recently, Brandenburg was strictly a musician. “I just started acting this year,” he said. He had a role in “The Mikado.” “I just wanted to try it out,” Brandenburg said. Acting, he said, is a lot of work but it's also a lot of fun. Angela Nguyen Nguyen, an Aberdeen native, plays Mary Detweiler in “How the Other Half Loves.” She is the stage manager and assistant choreographer for “Dames at Sea.” Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha An experienced Northern actress, Pillatzki-Warzeha is from LaBolt. She plays Mona Kent, the diva, in “Dames at Sea” and Fiona Foster in “How the Other Half Loves.” Brian Warzeha Warzeha caught the acting bug from his wife. A chemistry major, Warzeha met his future wife in a chemistry lab. He made his first acting appearance in Northern's production of “Beauty and the Beast.” A native of Long Lake, Minn., Warzeha plays Lucky in “Dames at Sea.” He is the stage manager and handles props for “How the Other Half Loves.” Shanon Patek Patek is an NSU student from Watertown. She plays Joan in “Dames at Sea” and Theresa Phillips in “How the Other Half Loves.” Patek has had substantial roles in NSU productions, including “Urinetown: The Musical” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Steve Balsarini In “Dames at Sea,” Balsarini plays Hennesey, the disgruntled manager, and the captain. In “How the Other Half Loves,” he portrays William Detweiler. Balsarini enrolled at Northern in January. He moved to Aberdeen from Omaha, Neb., with his wife, Dr. Sara Hernberg, who received her medical degree from the University of Helsinki in Finland. Leah Arnold Arnold plays the chorus girl in “Dames at Sea.” “I play Ruby, just a simple girl from Centerville, USA,” she said. Arnold, who turns 18 on Aug. 29, worked hard last year in the Northern Fort Playhouse. “It was physically and emotionally demanding in the best way it could have been,” she said. Arnold is like her character in some ways, she said. But she parts company with Ruby in that the chorus girl accepts her boyfriend, Dick, back after he's kissed another girl. Ruby has enough going for her, Arnold said, that she would have done all right on her own.